The Devil's Rock

source: The Devil's Rock

A commando infiltrates an isolated SS bunker on the eve of D-Day, only to find the threat from within is even more demonic than expected. Well, I had high hopes for this. It opens very well - really atmospheric seascape, then a tense mine-field scene, a fateful choice by the hero to divert from the mission, a creepy labyrinth to smother all hope, and a promising two-handed drama that switches hunter and prey. But it swoons into Hammer-style cheesiness. There were some really sharp points to be made here about war as the ultimate horror, and this story failed to make a connection, instead collapsing into goodies v baddies. Also it always amazes me how Anglo-Saxon horror is so coy about sexual images. So the story ends up really stunted, visually and dramatically. What a pity. I wonder if the funding system is effectively censoring films like this. It is well shot, the actors are good - although delivery of lines was often a bit hard to make out - and the music and dialogue start with good restraint but fail to break out. Overall, bright start but becomes dull.

Nothing – not even crap movie logic – annoys me as much as an actor who thinks that mumbling is the hallmark of great thespianism. For most of the movie I struggled hard to understand what that moron was saying. Sunderland pretty much talks like a ventriloquist for the duration. It's as if his mouth had been sewn shut by a Clive Barker cenobite; you can barely see it move. Pity this wasn't a Hellraiser movie, because I would have enjoyed seeing him torn to pieces, even if it'd just be make-believe. Worse yet, this cretin talks in a very low volume. Heavy-duty mumbling + low-volume slurring = a very unhappy viewer To make matters worse, Sunderland is part of nearly every scene after the first 15 or so minutes, and ALL of the movie's exposition comes through his barely-moving lips, so if you can't understand what he is saying you're basically screwed. If the time has come for English-speaking viewers to have to hunt down English subtitles for English-speaking movies, then it's time to EJECT A FEW ACTORS AND DIRECTORS PERMANENTLY from show-biz. I hope this guy never works again, at least until he learns the BASICS of performing in a movie, i.e. BEING FRIGGIN' UNDERSTOOD. Until then, flipping burgers is the best application I can envision for him. Perhaps rolling hot potatoes in his mouth could prove as useful practice; might teach him to separate the upper and lower jaws on occasion. As for the plot, it's pretty straight-forward. Two Ally soldiers find a German post dripping in blood, with nearly all the Nazis hacked and butchered. The rest of the movie is one big pull-and-push between the Nazi and the New Zealander, in what is supposed to be a great battle of wits. In the end, the Nazi snuffs it and the Ally soldier opts not to send the succubus back to Hell. He thinks it wise to use it as a weapon against the Nazis, not realizing that such a creature can do more harm than good in the long run. That's what you get when you let Kiwi peasants make crucial decision, I guess. So what's the point here? That a New Zealand farmer won D-Day for the Allies because he didn't send a succubus back to Hell? While it does evoke memories of "Outpost", it is fairly original with its single setting, just two men, and a female demon whose sole tactic is sex. TDR manages to remain interesting in spite of its limited setting, just three characters, and a deranged mumbler. The fact that both soldiers were wounded and badly beat up on several occasions, yet STILL managed to talk, walk and function was a quite on the absurd side. Plus, I didn't understand the entire plot – but I have that to thank Sunderland for. Nice job, moron!

It's been a long time since I saw a horror film like this. By that I mean one that has a coherent and well thought out story told through believable dialogue. I've read a few bizarrely negative reviews here. When I say bizarre I mean some of the reasons for giving it low marks. Here are my two favourites: It's not going to make money – This is honestly the first time I've seen a film marked down on cost/benefit analysis. There's only three people in it – Really don't know what to say to that. Maybe Australia would be more up this person's street; I hear there's loads of people in it. Anyway, here are my positives: Well acted. Sets and setting looked great – stark, grotty and bloody. Everything a growing horror film needs. Didn't rely on cheap window rattling and supernatural wind 'Scares'. Made what the Nazi soldiers were doing more believable somehow. Resisted the modern-day urge to crowbar humour into the dialogue. The demon was played by a real person in makeup. Looked great as a result. You just know that a big budget film would have made it a ridiculous CGI creature with wild, over the top magic powers. It's a bit of a beef I have with modern films but I just think that actual people put in much more real and believable performances than computer graphics. And of course they look like they're actually there in the set, because they are. And the negatives: German soldier didn't have a German accent? I know the jury is kind of out on that one. Some people think that context is enough and an accent can be in poor taste or whatever. I sort of agree sometimes because I'm from Belfast and I've heard some really shocking attempts at the accent over the years. Maybe it's because I'm not German but I think I would have liked an accent in this instance. The gunshot wound – Now I know it might seem silly to question the plausibility of something like this in a film about a captive demon on a Nazi held island, but unlike the accent issue this one is all about context. In the context of the film all the occult elements make sense, but the Nazi soldier seemed to get a lot better after the bullet was pulled out. I mean I'm not a doctor but it just appeared that the bullet was the real source of pain and suffering, and not the gaping wound it created. Gina Varela looked fantastic as the demon but I would have liked to see more of her. She was naked and painted red and I think it would have added something to the disturbing nature of such a demon if we had seen more of her very fine body beneath the demon's face. This isn't some sad need to see T & A; I could have just watched some mindless rubbish like the new piranha film for that. I found it really got under my skin that she was still attractive as the demon. Could have made more of that perhaps. Overall: Loved this film. Really good example of what can be achieved in the horror genre by just doing old skool film making well. Unlike others who enjoyed this film I've given it ten out of ten, not because of the disproportionate negative reviews, but because it was just right up my street.

This was not bad at all. The narrative was a bit weak admittedly, more explanation of the occult rituals would have been nice. The ending was also the classic writers getting tired making something quick up. A more clever ending had been appreciated. Overall the acting was really good. Try yourself to play a red painted demon and keep a straight face :) The two male leads, well the only ones really, delivered well. Camera work and editing was good, though in a way that is to be expected from shooting in small spaces. Overall, good effort from everyone involved and if you have popcorn and a nice hang over this is absolutely rent-able.

This movie had a promising concept but the actual movie turned out to be a total disappointment. And not just that, it was simply being a really bad movie as well! There truly is an awful lot wrong with this movie. I'm sure that it got made with all of the right intentions and it's also quite a great accomplishment, considering its limited resources but it just simply isn't being a very good movie. It already starts off quite poorly. The movie gets right into its 'action', which sounds like a good thing but in this case I would had liked to have received some more background information and characters buildup. Things now instead develop as the movie slowly goes along but problem with that all is that it never gave me a feeling that it was going anywhere, or was building up to some great, surprising or spectacular climax. It's all so very flawed and ridicules. The movie does a very bad job at building up anything or handling its tension. It's picking a more slow sort of approach at times, no doubt in an attempt to create tension and mystery with it but it instead makes the movie needlessly long at parts and lets it drag as well. Besides, the story is real hard to get into. Not just because of its lacking storytelling but also because of the story itself. The mission is supposedly a very important one, yet only 2, poorly equipped soldiers are send in and the research that the Germans were doing inside the bunker was supposed to be top secret and important for the outcome of the war. Yet the bunker is hardly protected and the two Kiwi 'commandos' have absolutely no problem entering it. Besides, if there was so many important research going on, than how come there was only 1 scientist and a handful of guards involved. Really, it was stuff like this that prevented me from ever liking the movie, or getting into it. And there just isn't enough variety in this movie. It's one that is almost entirely set inside of a Nazi bunker, with only literally an handful of characters involved. The movie really doesn't do anything surprising or credible enough with its concept, even while it all still sounded quite promising and fun on paper. There just isn't very much to enjoy in this movie, not even for the horror lovers, to which its main concept sounds like something truly awesome. Trust me, there just is nothing great or awesome about this movie at all. 3/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

There are better exercises that play with a similar idea as is this movie. Still this is not a bad movie at all. I got to watch this at a special preview at the Empire in Leicester Square. The director and some of the stars were there to watch the movie with a "kraut" (forgive the pun if you can). Speaking of language problems, I talked to the director after the movie was over and asked him about the German language used in the movie (as can be seen on signs too). Overall a good job, that his researcher did, but there are a few minor mistakes that you might spot, if you know your German language. Overall a decent job on creating atmosphere too. A classic example of "B-movie", that will entertain people who like this stuff :o)

In 1944, the New Zealander's soldiers Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall) and Sergeant Joseph Tane (Karlos Drinkwater) are assigned to explode a German military facility in a occupied Channel Island to create a diversion far from the Normandy on the eve of the D-Day. They hear screams inside the installation that is apparently unprotected and they prepare the explosives. When Grogan overhears a woman scream, he decides to seek her out inside the bunker and the reluctant Joseph follows him. Grogan is captured by Colonel Klaus Meyer (Matthew Sunderland) and Joseph is murdered. Grogan sees mutilated corpses and he escapes from Meyer. When he meets the woman, he finds that she is his deceased wife Helena (Gina Varela), who died in a airborne bombing. Soon Grogan learns that Helena is actually a demon unleashed by Meyer, who is researching the occultism expecting to create the ultimate weapon to win the war. Now Grogan is forced to team-up with Meyer to save his life against evil that is using Helena appearance to seduce him. "The Devil's Rock" is a worthwhile gore B-movie, with a reasonable story and good makeup. The idea of Nazis exploring occultism is not original but this movie is supported basically by three actors and an actress, all of them unknown but with good performances. There are brains, flesh, bones, eyeballs and lots of gore and Gina Varela is a seductive woman. There is one last scene in the credits, with the demon and a German soldier. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "A Rocha do Diabo" ("The Devil's Rock")

Second World War, two Kiwi troops are sent to the German occupied Channel island of Forau to blow up a big gun as a diversion. from the real D-Day invasion plans. After a tense time getting past land-mines on the beach Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall) and Sergeant Joe Tane (Karlos Drinkwater) make it to the gun with little problem and get to work planting explosives. They hear terrible screams from inside the German fortification and investigate further. They find all the German soldiers dead, brutally slaughtered and their bodies are torn apart. Suddenly a German officer appears and shoots Tane dead and captures Grogan. When Grogan come round his he is tortured by the officer Colonel Klaus Meyer (Matthew Sunderland) who want Grogan to tell him about the Allies' invasion plans but Grogan tell him northing. The scream start up again making Meyer very nervous . He scoops up a bucket full of gore from the bodies lying around and leaves to feed whatever is screaming. When returns Grogan demands to know what is going on.. Grogan escapes and chase Meyer through the tunnels of the fortification. He come to room with magic symbols on the floor and a grimoire full of spells on conjuring demons. And chained to the wall is a woman (Gina Varela)who looks just like his dead wife. She begs Grogan to free her but just then Meyer then enters the room, shoots Grogan in the leg and shoots the woman in the head He explain that the woman is a demon that they conjured to use as a weapon against the allies. She can look like whoever she wants to different people including people that they love. She is not dead and indeed she comes back to life soon after. Meyer proves she is a demon by tossing severed leg down at her and she transforms into a horned demon. Meyer tells Grogan that he needs his help to send the demon back to hell and if Grogan assists him he will turn himself into the allies and give him all the information he has about the German plans. The two men must put aside their mutual hatred and work together to defeat the demon and escape. This film has fairly low budget but it does make very good of what money it had, with very authentic sets and realistic looking gore all over the place. The only problem for me is that the film seems to take place when most of the action is already over and instead of on screen action there is a lot of the characters talking to each other – it is almost like this film is the third act of story padded out to a feature film length. The acting is great especially from Matthew Sutherland and Craig Hall. Overall the film is okay but a bit long of the dialogue and short on the action. Rating 6/10

Given that New Zealand is such a small film market, at least in comparison with the wealth of content cinemas have available to them from abroad, the number of homegrown films which see a wide release is unfortunately small. It shouldn't be a reflection on the quality of local film, just simply the reality of existing in a business so completely dominated by Hollywood. Which is why it's so disappointing when one of the precious few slots allocated to NZ films is filled by something like The Devil's Rock, a derivative, achingly slow horror masquerading as revisionist history. The concept is not essentially a bad one, yet it's handled in such a clumsy fashion that it makes one despair for the state of our national cinema if this is among the best that our filmmakers can do. Playing out on an understandably small scale, The Devil's Rock runs with the oft speculated idea that during World War II, Nazis were researching and conducting experiments that dabbled in the occult, and in this case have summoned a demon to a small, uninhabited island in the English Channel. There's potentially interesting ideas here, but director Paul Campion's attempts to build the suspense necessary for a film of this type reduce the pacing to a crawl, and what should be creepy and unsettling ultimately ends up being painfully boring. The performances don't do the film any favours either, with particularly disappointing work from Matthew Sunderland (Out of the Blue), whose baffling attempt at an accent leads to much confusion about who is who, and what his motivation is. Before descending completely into the cheap Exorcist knock-off that it threatens to become, The Devil's Rock admittedly has an unexpected and welcome twist, although it's best not to consider the implications of what the film is suggesting in any kind of historical sense. The most successful New Zealand films tend to stick to well defined and culturally specific stories, but sadly, in trying to branch out into genre filmmaking, The Devil's Rock fails to deliver anything more than cheap, direct-to-video level mediocrity. tinribs27.wordpress.com